Algonquin mother won't face Tenn. charges

ALGONQUIN – A Tennessee grand jury has failed to indict an Algonquin mother accused of abandoning her severely disabled daughter at a bar.

On June 28, Eva Cameron left her 19-year-old daughter at the Big Orange Bar in Caryville, Tenn., about an hour northwest of Knoxville.

The daughter, Lynn Cameron, had no identification, and because of her inability to communicate, it took authorities 10 days to identify her.

According to a news release from the Campbell County (Tenn.) District Attorney's Office, the grand jury had been convened in September and met again on Friday.

"There is no disagreement that the actions of the mother, Eva Cameron, in this case were inexcusable," the release stated. "However, Tennessee law has not anticipated such behavior and thus the Grand Jury was faced with conduct which was not necessarily indictable. The Grand Jury made a very thorough investigation, looking at all the factors and the appropriateness of any criminal charges, and did not return a true bill against Ms. Cameron."

Cameron previously told the Northwest Herald that she had reached the end of her rope and could no longer care for her daughter.

She said she was unable to receive adequate help in Illinois and wanted her daughter to become a ward of the state of Tennessee because of its health care system.

A Tennessee judge, at the request of Illinois authorities, released Lynn Cameron into Illinois custody, and she was placed in a state-funded residential home for people with developmental disabilities, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services.